Connect

My Research

Inspired by Darwin’s ‘endless forms’ and my favorite pastime, people watching, my research focuses on understanding the evolution of human anatomical variation. I consider myself both an anthropologist and a biologist; both disciplines inform and mould my research.

As a foot and ankle evolution specialist, I utilize large datasets to more fully understand the scope of human foot and ankle anatomical variation. I derive these data from skeletons, in vivo medical images such as x-rays, and from cadavers. Then I attempt to figure out how our ancient ancestors’ feet and ankles functioned given what we know about modern humans.

I am also a member of the international team that described the oldest known hominin cancer, SK 7923, a left fifth metatarsal from Swartkrans, South Africa, dated to about 1.7Ma. This find definitively demonstrates that cancer is not a disease of modern times (or even modern humans!). Here’s a piece on our work from the New York Times.

As a practicing anatomist, I have the privilege of overseeing hundreds of students as they dissect scores of cadavers every year. There is much work to do in developing our understanding of how specific soft tissue anatomical structures vary and evolve. Early scientific anatomists often documented the variations they observed. But their work predated dissemination of Darwin’s theory, and they were often unable to make sense of these variations and place them in a broader context. Today, anatomists can use modern evolutionary theory to interpret anatomical variation and hypothesize about evolutionary histories – even though these structures leave no traces in the fossil record.

My first publication was in the open accessjournal PLoS ONE. I am committed to publishing in open access outlets whenever possible. Having been at small, medium, and large universities, and having collaborated with other scientists around the globe, I believe that as much science as possible should be available freely via the internet to as many people as are interested!